A great defender back then you can count on one hand. Today just about every team has a good defensive player on their roster somewhere, whereas back then 20 teams had garbage defenses all around. High scoring games in the 1980's was the norm because of the lack of defense league wide.

The difference is perimeter defense has greatly gotten better over the past 15 years. Compare it to the games back then and it was a comedy show how open players were every night. It was free pickings.